As Colt McCoy(notes) prepares for Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns’ second-year quarterback is fighting through frustration on several fronts. His team has a disappointing 4-6 record. He and his receivers are adapting to a new, West Coast system implemented by rookie coach Pat Shurmur. And the team’s most valuable offensive player of 2010, running back Peyton Hillis(notes), has been a non-factor, undone by injury and contract-related dissatisfaction.

Colt McCoy says the rough treatment he endured as a rookie from coaches helped him grow as a quarterback. "I really did appreciate them," McCoy said. "It made me stronger as a man. It taught me a lot about how to handle things."
(US Presswire)

Compared to the onslaught of negativity McCoy experienced as a rookie, however, these frustrations are subtle and quaint.

When McCoy arrived in Cleveland after a standout career as a four-year starter at the University of Texas, the third-round draft pick was welcomed with stiff arms by then-coach Eric Mangini and his assistants. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, in particular, unleashed a torrent of tough love, except the love part was lost on McCoy and the teammates who observed the regular razzing.

In what became a running joke in the Browns’ locker room, Daboll disparaged McCoy loudly and relentlessly – sometimes to his face, sometimes through the earpiece in the quarterback’s helmet.

“There were times I had to pull my helmet off to call a play in the huddle,” McCoy recalled in an interview earlier this month. “Guys could hear him yelling, and they’d say, ‘Just take it off.’ People said to me, ‘Man, I ain’t never seen anything like that. Just hang in there.’”

Quote:

Daboll, now the Miami Dolphins’ offensive coordinator, declined a Y! Sports interview request. His heavy-handed coaching approach toward McCoy was hardly unique, especially given that it occurred during the quarterback’s rookie season. Says Pro Bowl center Alex Mack(notes), the team’s first-round draft pick in 2009: “When I got here as a rookie, I got hazed much worse by the coaching staff than I did by any player.”

Unfortunately, the problem is Mack Brown and UT. UT players have a terrible track record in the NFL to the point where GM's are reluctant to draft them. This guy probably felt he needed to be hard on him. Sounds like he went overboard, though.